In a retail type environment, the efficiency with which consumers are able to process, pay for and purchase their desired items factors into the expenses for a retail type establishment. The labor hours attributable to manning checkout counters contributes greatly to this expense. In a typical retail operation, a shopper gathers the items desired for purchase and presents them at a checkout counter, a clerk then scans or enters the items' barcodes and the point-of-sale (POS) system totals the shopper's bill. The clerk may apply any promotional discounts to the bill, the shopper tenders payment, and the items may be bagged for the customer. A number of self-service automated checkout terminal concepts have been developed in an attempt to reduce the need for a check-out clerk, thus reducing associated labor costs.
Toward reducing operating expenses, some businesses have implemented self-checkout counters that substitute for individual clerks and baggers at each checkout terminal. Self-checkout terminals are systems which are operated mainly by a customer without the direct aid of a checkout clerk. In such a system, the customer scans, selects or enters individual items for purchase, for example, across a scanner or screen and then places the selected items into a grocery type bag, if desired. The customer then pays for his or her purchase either at the self-service checkout terminal or at a central payment area. Thus, a self-service checkout terminal permits a customer to select, itemize and even pay for his or her purchases without the direct assistance of the retailer's personnel at each individual checkout terminal.
Self-checkout systems are also useful in other types of unattended environments, such as, employee break rooms, hotel vending areas, business lobby settings or hospitals. One of the many benefits of self-checkout systems is that they allow quick consumer-operated transactions, resulting in high throughput. This high throughput has to be balanced with a transaction that allows new self-checkout users to feel in control of and comfortable with the transaction. Some self-checkout users quickly adapt and become comfortable with a self-checkout transaction and prefer to move as quickly as possible through the transaction while others, such as new users, still need guidance through the transaction. It is to these and other problems that this disclosure is directed.